Description

A lesson for parents and kids to learn more about what and how much to eat throughout the day.

What you’ll need

• Paper for writing lists. Children who can write should have their own paper.
• Crayons or pencils
• A large paper plate you can put on your refrigerator
• A scissors

Some basics for you

Let’s start with the basics, learning about the kinds of foods that are good for us and how much of those foods we should eat.

Why do we need to learn about the right foods to eat, and how much food to eat?

Let your children give their answers, but make sure they learn this:

• Healthful food helps our brains, hearts, muscles, and bones grow and develop well. The right amount of food helps us to feel good and to have plenty of energy. It even helps us learn better in school.
• Too much food can make it hard for us to move well. If we eat too much all the time, we could add too much weight to our bodies. That added weight can make our joints and muscles hurt. And after a while, it might make us get sick.

MyPlate: Variety and color

One way to learn about healthful foods, and healthful amounts of food, is with MyPlate.

What do you know about the MyPlate?

Older kids might have learned about it in school, so they may have some answers. The message children should get about MyPlate:

MyPlate is a guide that helps to show us what kinds of foods we should eat every day, and how much of those foods we should eat.

The main thing the plate is telling us is that every day, for our good health, we need to eat a variety of foods from these different groups:

• Grains (bread, cereal, etc.)
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Milk (dairy products)
• Meat and beans (protein)
• Fats and Oils (butter, mayonnaise, oils like what’s in fried foods)

Exploring MyPlate

Let’s click on each section in MyPlate to see a little bit more information about the foods there.

• Click on the orange, or grain section, to see the differences between whole and refined grains.
• Click on the green, or vegetable section, to see the subgroups of vegtables.
• Click on the red, or fruit section, to see whether frozen or canned fruits are okay, and also to see whether or not fruit juice counts as a fruit.
• Click on the blue, or diary section, to see what kind of dairy foods are best to choose.
• Click on the purple, or protein section, to see what kinds of choices are best and how to get variety.

Let’s make a list of healthful foods we can put together for a meal. Can you name five foods that are healthful and would go together?

Let your children provide the answers. If they have trouble at first, you may prompt them by suggesting they name some vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat meats, dried beans, etc.

What’s NOT a healthful food?

It’s good to learn what is good to eat, but it's also important to learn about what is NOT good to eat a lot of.

Potato chips—are they considered a vegetable? (NO!) explain why

• What could you choose instead of potato chips?

What about french fries—are they considered a vegetable? (NO!)

• What could you choose instead of french fries?

Cheese puffs—are they in the dairy group? (NO!)

• What would be a better dairy choice than cheese puffs?

Cherry pop tarts—are they in the fruit group? (NO!)

• What could you choose instead of cherry pop tarts?

What other kinds of foods should you eat very little of?

Ask kids to name other things that they shouldn't eat a lot of. If they can’t think of things right away, give them a hint—cookies, cupcakes, candy, sugar, etc., and ask them to name healthier choices in place of the foods they should limit.

What's right for you?

Who wants to see how much food is healthful for you to eat each day?

The USDA Daily Food Plan lets parents put in age, gender, and activity level information, plus height and weight if desired, to get an estimate of the amounts of the different foods each child should eat. The height and weight is optional, because this should be fun and informative, and not about whether a child is overweight.

Just for fun, let’s take a look at the meals we’ve already eaten today, and we can see if they were balanced.

It's time to use that paper plate! Parents ask the kids to list what they ate during the meals they’ve already had. Remember to include drinks. Have your children draw or glue pictures of each food item onto the empty plate. There are a few pictures above on the right, or you can find pictures in newspaper ads, magazines, food packaging, etc. For example, if a child had a grilled cheese sandwich and milk, those items would be drawn or glued onto the plate.

How does it compare with the healthful foods we should be eating at each meal? What could we add for more balance? What could we take away?

Other fun MyPlate activities

Below the food cut outs to the right, you'll find a variety of food-related games for your children that reinforce healthful food choices.

Goals for the week

• Identify one way to make each meal more balanced
• Try and make half of your plate fruits and vegetables
• Make at least half your grains whole grains